Jeremiah 15:16 Your words were found, and I did eat them; and your word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart: for I am called by your name, O LORD God of hosts.

Chewing the Bread of Life

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Tuesday, January 2, 2018

Praise in the Storm

From my notes I present a digested message of our Bible Study at our Church

Our Bible Study lesson began
with Matthew 14:22-36, John 6:16-21 and Mark 6:47-51. These are three versions
of the story about the disciples leaving in their boat without Jesus; as He
stayed behind to pray.

The darkness of night plus
the wind and waves of a storm were giving the fishermen deep trouble.Suddenly in the shadows they could see a
figure of a man walking on the water toward them.Fear struck their hearts thinking this must
be a ghost, but Jesus spoke and said, “It is I, do
not be afraid, but be of good cheer.”

Peter still doubting, but exercising boldness, said, "IF it is you, bid me
come to you."Jesus replied, “Come,” and with
courage, Peter made that leap of faith and began to walk on water toward
Jesus.

However the circumstances of life
overcame Peter as he took his eyes off Jesus, and he began to sink.“Lord save me,” Peter cried.Jesus reached out and lifted him up above his
problems and together they walked to the boat. Immediately the storm was stilled and the
terrified disciples welcomed Jesus and Peter into the boat.They worshiped Jesus, saying, “Truly You are the Son of God.”

Jesus
was revealing to them His glory a bit at a time.

The
Children of Israel were just leaving Egypt and Moses requested God to go
with them,God said His presence would be with
them in their journey.Moses then asked
to see the glory of God Exodus 33:14-23and God said:

“You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.” And the Lord said, “Here is a place by Me, and you
shall stand on the rock. So it shall
be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and
will cover you with My hand while I pass by. Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My
face shall not be seen.”

Later
Moses met with God for 40 days on the mountain, and just being in God’s
presence caused his face to shine.The
people were terrified to see the glory of God surrounding Moses.

We
must not judge the disciples or the people who were frightened of the glory,
because at times we too are guilty.We
hesitate to take that extra step and enter the glory cloud where the Holy
Spirit will be able to show us great and mighty things.

The
disciples did not understand that Jesus was to become the sacrifice for the
sins of the World.They were being told
almost daily, but their understanding was thickened and dull.

When John proclaimed “This is the Lamb of God
who will take away the sins of the world,” their ears were not attuned to
receive truth.They had a different scenario
in mind expecting Jesus to take over the government and become King, so they
were not open to hear the message of death and resurrection.

We
question and ask:Why is there
suffering, pain, fear, emotional distress and death in this world?Does God do this?

As
we look at Job, we see that it was the devil that caused destruction to Job’s
family and his wealth.God allowed this to
happen, but God did not cause it.This
was a test to see how Job would respond if he lost children and worldly goods.During the pain and suffering, God revealed
himself to Job and taught him that through it all, God was still there with
him.God asked Job to lean on Him.

God also asks us to
lean on Him.Trust is strong and God is
revealing his glory to us as we seek Him.

Jesus wanted to take his
disciples to a higher level of faith - - no matter what
circumstance we are facing.The disciples were like a
yo-yo believing and doubting even after Christ death and resurrection.

Jesus gently was opening up their understanding as
he taught them for 40 days.At Pentecost
they were infused with the glory of God and began to realize that there was
more and God was making his power available to them.

If we are in a storm of life,
may we learn to praise God IN the storm as praise and worship will bring
us peace, because Jesus is taking us safely to the other side.

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About Me

I am a widow as of 04/14/17 when my husband Robert went to heaven. I am an ordained minister but am retired except for an occasional wedding or funeral. Sharing about Jesus is a passion and that is why this blog has been set up. I write true stories with a spiritual twist.